Five hot tips for keeping your cooler cold
You may not know this, but the life of any party isn’t your buddy who knows every great line from “The Simpsons.” It’s not your uncle who tells you embarrassing stories about your mom. It isn’t even the girl who can break out any 80s dance move you throw at her.
It’s the ultimate gathering place—your cooler. The hangout where everyone’s drinks meet at a backyard BBQ. The bench at the tailgate party where two sports fans recount the biggest referee blunders. The rolling campsite refrigerator where meats meet and become a meal.
Our celebration of insulation sent us to the ice chest authority. Mike Brockel makes his living designing and studying all things freezing. He says getting the most out of your cooler is all about getting the most out of your ice. It begins before the big event by refrigerating the stuff that will go inside. The reason is seemingly simple: cool food and drinks won’t warm up the cubes as much. The colder the ice, the longer it lasts.
Those cubes will stick around longer with a dual attack. Start by doing what your dad may have done. Fill a couple two liters almost to the top with water, freeze them for a few days, throw them in with the drinks and the meat and then sprinkle a bag or two of ice over everything. You may have thought growing up the old guy did it because he was cheap. It turns out it was because he was smart. Mike says the bottled ice keeps the cubes cooler, the cubed ice keeps the drinks cooler and the drinks keep you cooler.
When it comes to packing everything you pick up at the grocery store, there is no real formula. Just remember the ice will eventually become the freezing bath you’ll have to fish to find the last soda. Make sure it’s OK if the stuff on the bottom gets wet. Keep things like hamburgers on top so they stay dry. And don’t forget what I told you in my previous blog. Keep the cold water in the cooler even when you add more ice. That freezing H2O will keep the new ice frozen longer.
If you have the luxury of using two coolers, Mike says do it. Separate the stuff by things you need more often, like drinks and things you may only need a few times, like meat. The ice will melt faster in the chest with the drinks, but the cubes you pour over the steak and dogs will last longer when you leave them alone.
Keeping the outside of the box as cool as possible is as important as keeping the temperature inside it down. Setting the cooler in the shadiest part of the campsite and keeping it there will usually do the job.
That’s it. That’s all you need to remember to keep the party inside your cooler going and ensure some rather happy camping.